Beth was off to one side, talking to Hetta. Or rather, Beth was talking a lotatHetta, and Hetta was just shaking her head, looking more and more upset.
Archie frowned. That didn’t seem right. Wondering what was going on, he headed for the two girls.
“Comeon, Hetta,” Beth was saying impatiently as he came up behind them. “All the other teams are full packs. We won’t stand any chance of winning if you sit out.”
Hetta’s mouth was doing the shaky thing that meant she was trying real hard not to cry, and didn’t want anyone to know. She shook her head again, even more firmly.
“But all you have to do is hold on to the rope and pull.” Beth’s face had gone red and splotchy, the way it only did when she was really worked up about something (usually him). “It’s notdangerous or anything. You’ve done all kinds of activities over the past few weeks. Why won’t you do this one?”
Uh-oh. Beth didn’t know the real problem, but Archie did. He’d worked out that Hetta was only brave when Conleth was nearby, able to whisk her away if she started to shift by accident. But in an open field, surrounded by people, it would be pretty much impossible to bundle her away in time. Of course Conleth, being perfect, would probably manage it anyhow, but it would still look weird.
“Hey, leave her alone, Beth,” Archie said, wondering how the heck to get Beth to back off without revealing Hetta’s secret. “She doesn’t have to play if she doesn’t want to.”
“Of course you’d take her side, Archie,” Beth said nastily. “I suppose you’dlikeour team to be at a disadvantage, wouldn’t you.”
“What? No!” Why was she being so mean? “Of course I want us to win. But it’s just a game, Beth. It’s notthatimportant.”
“Yes, it is!” Beth rounded on poor Hetta again. “You said you wanted to be a proper part of this pack. So act like it!”
Paige and Conleth had noticed the growing argument as well. To Archie’s relief, they both hurried over to intervene. Finley, Rufus, and Estelle followed behind, drawn by the commotion as well.
“What’s going on here?” Paige asked.
“Hetta doesn’t want to play tug-of-war,” Archie explained, since Hetta looked too upset to defend herself. “And Beth is getting all up in her face about it for no reason.”
“She’s ruining things for the rest of the pack for no reason!” Beth protested. She tossed her braid over her shoulder, giving Hetta a scathing, scornful glare. “Why do you always have to be such a chicken?”
“Don’t call me that!” Hetta’s voice rose, louder than Archie had ever heard her speak before. All around, heads turned theirway, grown-ups cutting off their own conversations to see what was going on. “I’m not a chicken, I’m not, I’m not,I’m not!”
And just like that, everything made sense.
“You’re a chicken shifter, aren’t you?” Archie said, every word ringing clearly in the sudden silence. “That’s why you don’t want anyone to know you can shift!”
Hetta’s dad, who’d been talking to Beth’s mom nearby, started. “Hetta, is that true?”
Hetta went so white, Archie thought she might faint. She gave him a furious, betrayed look.
Too late, he realized what he’d done. “Hetta, I didn’t mean to?—”
“Ihateyou!” Hetta shrieked at him, then burst into tears. Whirling, she pushed blindly through the crowd.
“Hetta?” Her dad hurried after her. “Hetta, darlin’, wait!”
“I’ll try to help,” Paige said to Conleth in a low voice. She followed Hetta’s dad, leaving the rest of the pack behind at the center of a murmuring ring of onlookers.
“So Hetta’s achickenshifter?” Estelle said. “Did anyone else know apart from Archie?”
“Not me,” Finley said. Then he started, whipping around to stare at Rufus. “Wait, you knew?”
Rufus made a low hiss, like an angry cat. Archie couldn’t hear whatever the griffin shifter had said telepathically, but he didn’t need any of the mythic shifters to translate. The way Rufus was glaring at him, gold eyes flat and unfriendly, got the message across loud and clear.
“I didn’t mean to,” Archie mumbled. “And I didn’t know she was a chicken shifter. Just knew she didn’t want anyone to find out she could shift.”
“You knew her secret, and you blurted it out in front of the whole camp?” Beth said accusingly. “In front of herdad?”
“I didn’t know she hadn’t even told him!” The familiar wave of guilt and shame was creeping up from his stomach, cold and horrible. “And anyway, it’s your fault too! You’re the one who called her a chicken!”
“All right, both of you, that’s enough,” Conleth said firmly. “We’ll talk about it later. Come on, the tournament’s about to start.”
